This is a play told in silences and in sound, both huge as the roar of a transport train picking up speed, and tiny and muffled as the soft closing of a door—this one at the bottom of the stairs to the garret where the Franks and Van Daans go into hiding.

Perhaps it is inevitable that any production of this material will be steeped in earnestness (can you imagine turning this play into a musical?); and likewise a reliance on voiceovers and Anne reading from her diary is hard to avoid. However, the reworking by Kesselman in 1997 to restore the emphasis on Anne's cultural heritage is well done, and a scene where the families light menorah candles is particularly affecting.

Director Taichman makes an excellent choice by not allowing the cast to escape offstage during intermission, but rather they remain trapped in their refuge with the house lights up as they reset props and costumes. The properties staff miscues by providing a bag of perfect looking spuds while we are told that the refugees are eating "rotten potatoes."

Rick Foucheux finds the widest range of colors to play as the once-rich Van Daan, driven to selling his wife's old fur coat and scarfing bread in the middle of the night. The talented Mitchell Hébert seems out of place in an overly manic reading of the dentist Dussel.

posted: 11:45:25 PM